Memory cards are known in the art and contain intelligence in the form of a memory circuit or other electronic program. Some form of card reader reads the information or memory stored on the card. Such cards are used in many applications in today's electronic society, including video cameras, digital still cameras, smartphones, PDA's, music players, ATMs, cable television decoders, toys, games, PC adapters, multi-media cards and other electronic applications. Typically, a memory card includes a contact or terminal array for connection through a card connector to a card reader system and then to external equipment. The connector readily accommodates insertion and removal of the card to provide quick access to the information and program on the card. The card connector includes terminals for yieldingly engaging the contact array of the memory card.
A typical memory card connector includes some form of dielectric housing which is covered by a metal shell. The metal shell may be stamped and formed of sheet metal material and formed substantially into a box-shape. The metal shell and the housing combine to define a card-receiving cavity. One end of the cavity is open to form a card-insertion opening. The dielectric housing may be generally L-shaped or U-shaped and includes a rear terminal-mounting section at the rear of the cavity, and a longitudinal side wall section extends forwardly from one or both ends of the rear section at one or both sides of the cavity. The contacts or terminals of the connector are mounted on the rear section. The metal shell has a top plate substantially covering the dielectric housing, with side plates extending downwardly over the side wall sections of the housing. The side plates of the metal shell and/or the side wall sections of the housing define the sides of the card-receiving cavity.
The memory card connector often is mounted on the top surface of a printed circuit board, and solder tail portions of the terminals are connected, as by a reflow soldering process, to appropriate circuit traces on the board. The connector may include some form of eject mechanism to facilitate ejecting a memory card from the card-receiving cavity of the housing. The eject mechanism often is mounted on one of the side wall sections of the L-shaped or U-shaped housing.
Most memory card connectors are designed for receiving only one type of memory card. FIG. 1 shows a conventional memory card connector, generally designated 10, that is capable of receiving at least two different kinds of memory cards. Connector 10 includes a dielectric or insulating housing, generally designated 12, which has a rear terminal-mounting section 12a and a pair of side wall sections 12b extending forwardly from opposite ends of the rear section defining a card-receiving space 14 therebetween. The housing includes a base plate 12c which spans side wall sections 12b forwardly of rear terminal-mounting section 12a. An array, generally designated 16, of first terminals 18 are mounted in rear terminal-mounting section 12a of the housing and include contact portions 18a at a rear area of card-receiving space 14. An array, generally designated 20, of second terminals, generally designated 22 (FIG. 2), are mounted on base plate 12c of the housing at a forward area of card-receiving space 14.
FIG. 2 shows one of the second terminals 22 which includes a body portion 22a fixed in the housing, a resilient contact arm 22b extending from one end of the body portion, a solder tail 22c at the opposite end of the body portion, and a contact portion 22d at a free end of resilient contact arm 22b. 
Referring to FIGS. 3 and 3A, when a memory card, generally designated 24, such as a MS (Memory Stick) card, is inserted into prior art connector 10, a bottom surface 24a has one or more recesses 24b which ride over contact portions 22d of second terminals 22. In a conventional connector, when memory card 24 is ejected from the rear toward the front of card-receiving space 14, recess(es) 24b have a tendency to stub or even catch on the free distal ends 22e (FIG. 2) of contact portions 22d of the second terminals. This can cause the terminals to become deflected, distorted or damaged. Recesses 24b cannot be eliminated because of the general design specifications of a standard MS memory card.
In order to solve the problem described above, conventional memory card 10 includes a rear pressing plate 26 which is pivoted at 28 between side wall sections 12b of the housing. When the MS memory card 24 is inserted into the connector, it presses down on rear pressing plate 26 which, in turn, presses down on contact portions 22d of all of the second terminals 22 to prevent the free distal ends 22e of the terminals from stubbing into recesses 24b in the bottom surface 24a of the memory card.
Unfortunately, through continued use, along with the reaction forces upwardly from the contact portions of terminals 22, rear pressing plate 26 sometimes becomes warped and blocks the insertion of a MS-type memory card. Consequently, a second, front pressing plate 30 has been added and is pivotally mounted at 32 between side wall sections 12b of the housing. As seen in FIG. 3, a rear portion 30a of front pressing plate 30 pushes down on a front end 26a of rear pressing plate 26 to prevent the front end of the rear pressing plate from blocking insertion of the MS memory card.
The above configuration of front and rear pressing plates 30 and 26, respectively, of the conventional memory card connector shown in FIGS. 1–3A, is expensive, complicated in structure and prone to disengagements. The present invention is directed to providing an improved connector which overcomes these various problems.